Mary Beard is standing on a chair, chiselling the fig leaf off a large classical statue in Crawford Art Gallery in Cork. One of the challenges of the subject, Beard admits, was how to place herself as the presenter. One regular response, Stehli tells Beard, was “Would you do this if you didn’t have a body like this?”Against the intransigence of the male gaze, Beard pits her own, shifting perspective. Are they nude?” Beard asks. “I’m not a posh male art historian.

Source: The Guardian January 25, 2020 10:52 UTC